January 06, 2013

Or Not . . .

I should have been on one of these right now . . .

Instead we're at a hotel in Ostia, our stay in Italy having been extended courtesy of Alitalia overbooking their flights to JFK, Boston, and Toronto. The airport was chaos. No other word would cover it.

I was fascinated in the reactions of the various folks. The people bumped were predominately Americans, Canadians, and Italians. Italians have ranted, shaked, wailed, laughed
and moved on. Canadians are standing quietly at back of the chaos
waiting their turn. The New Yorkers and Bostonians . . . mama mia! I
have heard some new words.

I tooka different approach with the women who were trying to manage the chaos. I commiserated. I told them I hoped they weren't taking it personally. I apologized on behalf of my fellow travellers who were so overwrought they forgot basic human decency.

In the end we were rebooked for tomorrow. Provided with a hotel for tonight, dinner, breakfast, and some to be determined compensation. A happy result.

Tonight at dinner we ran into many of the people who had been ranting at the airport today . . . funny how few of them have direct flights like us. In fact, the guy who was ranting about everything being broken in Italy, and this would never happen in the US, and they were a bunch of a**holes is booked in three flights before he gets to JFK.

I suspect nothing happens by chance.

During our shuttle ride to the hotel I mentioned to Nancy and Paul that I thought we were close to the Roman ruins at Ostia Antica. Sure enough we were but a 10 minute walk from the train station, 1 stop from the Ostia stop, and then 10 minutes from the site.

Yes, we had an adventure this afternoon!

Located at (and named for) the mouth (ostium) of the Tiber, Ostia was
founded about 620 B.C. Its main attraction was the salt gleaned from
nearby salt flats, which was a precious preserver of meat in ancient
times. Later, as Rome began expanding (around 400 B.C.), Ostia was
conquered, and a fort, or castrum, was built here. Ostia — often called
Rome's first colony — served as a naval base, protecting Rome from any
invasion by river. By A.D. 150, when Rome controlled the Mediterranean,
Ostia's importance became commercial rather than military. Rome
eventually outgrew the port of Ostia, and a vast new port was dug nearby
(where Rome's airport now stands). But Ostia remained a key
administrative and warehousing center, busy with the big business of
keeping more than a million Romans fed and in sandals. With the fall of
Rome, the port was abandoned. Over time, the harbor silted up, and the
Tiber retreated to about one mile away. The mud that eventually buried
Ostia actually protected it from the ravages of time — and
stone-scavenging medieval peasants.

Most of ancient Ostia’s 50,000 residents lived in densely packed
apartment buildings four or five stories high. First-floor rooms are
still there to walk into. Stairs that led to upper stories trail off
into space. Eventually it dawns on you that you’re seeing not just how
people lived in Ostia, but how the masses must have lived in Rome, too.

You can wander around the barracks of the fire department, which doubled
as a police force with 300 men, rotated in from Rome for three-month
stints. You can drop in at a restaurant with a stone countertop and
faded frescoes advertising the food: fruit, carrots, lentils. Then there
is Fortunatus’s wine bar, which angles for customers with a message in
the floor mosaic roughly translatable as “Fortunatus’s Place. You know
you’re thirsty — come on in and drink.” Ostians transacted legal
business in their small forum, where steps take you up to the main pagan
temple. Most worshiped in other buildings, including a synagogue with
reliefs of a menorah and shofar. The excavated bakeries have millstones
and ovens, and at the laundries you’ll see built-in tubs where human
agitators jumped on the clothes to keep them moving in the first-century
version of the wash cycle. Although the laundries’ use of urine as a
bleach seems questionable, Ostians liked to be clean. If you have the
patience, you can find the remains of 20 public baths, including the one
where the mule drivers went to lounge.

Ostia wasn’t exactly forgotten after the encroaching silt and vegetation
took over. Much of the marble facing from its concrete structures was
dug up in the Middle Ages and Renaissance to be reused on distant new
buildings. Kilns were set up to extract lime from its once abundant
marble statuary.

But the basics remain (concrete, brick and stone) along with artwork and
columns buried too deep to be easily plundered. There is more than
enough for a day of exploring, with a break for a sandwich or salad at
the airy cafe, a visit to the small, well-designed museum, and some
browsing at the bookstore.

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I spent an extra day in Amsterdam courtesy of Alitalia and KLM. A night in a hotel, dinner and a buffet breakfast all paid for. They even gave me a phone card to phone my ride in Vancouver. I say enjoy!!

We left the snow behind and headed to California for a long weekend of fun. We shoppedm toured wineries, tasted olive oil, met up with good friends, and ate some wonderful food. I can't wait for slow bowl 2009.